


The Ever-Present Game of Knowing

by KaytiKazoo



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - No SHIELD (Marvel), Bisexual Leo Fitz, College Student Skye | Daisy Johnson, F/M, Mentioned Grant Ward, Phil Coulson & Melinda May are Skye's Parents, Professor Leo Fitz, Texting
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:20:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,647
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25962742
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KaytiKazoo/pseuds/KaytiKazoo
Summary: Leo Fitz thinks he's perfectly content being single, with his good job and his close friend group. Then he literally crashes into Daisy Johnson, again and again, and he's sure he was wrong.
Relationships: Bobbi Morse/Jemma Simmons, Leo Fitz & Bobbi Morse, Leo Fitz/Skye | Daisy Johnson, past Leo Fitz/Grant Ward, past Skye | Daisy Johnson/Grant Ward
Comments: 4
Kudos: 50
Collections: AOS AU August 2020





	The Ever-Present Game of Knowing

“Leopold,” a voice said from behind him as he packed his bag for class. When he turned, in his office door stood Bobbi Morse, grinning at him. 

“I’ve told you many times not to call me that,” he said, but he smiled back at her. “What’s up?”

“Are you coming to that meeting this afternoon?”

Fitz sighed and nodded.

“I should be getting home or at least grading papers, but yeah, I’ll be there.”

“How’s your day going?”

“Terrible, actually.” He gestured to the coffee stain on his shirt. “Woke up late, spilled my coffee, dropped my breakfast sandwich, and broke my bag. I considered cancelling class today just so I could say fuck it and go back to bed.”

“Why didn’t you? I absolutely would. I cancelled class once just because a coffeehouse was selling  these really delicious croissants across town and I couldn’t get to the coffeehouse and also teach class.”

Fitz laughed. 

“Is Simmons going to the meeting today?”

“Certainly,” Bobbi said. “She’s always at the meetings. Half of her day is spent in meetings these days, especially with the grant she got for her research.”

“How are you holding up with that?”

Bobbi and Jemma had been hot and heavy recently, having finally worked through some shit holding them back from committing, and it had been hard to get one of them alone without the other. Fitz imagined that it would be difficult to step away from that so drastically, not that he would know. His last relationship had crashed and burned in a spectacular blaze of egos and attitudes. He wasn’t eager to repeat that mistake. Those mistakes, actually. Most of his relationships, if not all of them, ran the same track over and over, and he was sick of the predictability of it all. 

“Fine,” Bobbi said, and there were obvious notes of melancholy in her voice. 

“Are you actually?”

“I mean, yeah. I’m alive, and we’re together, but I do miss her. I miss her every second we’re not together.”

“Gross.”

“You’ve mentioned that before.”

“I know.”

“Darling,” Bobbi said, leaning against the desk. “When are you going to start dating again?”

“You’re starting to sound like Simmons now.”

“You should. It’s been a long time since, you know.”

“You can say his name, you know. I’m not going to shatter at the first mention of Grant.”

Bobbi shrugged. 

“Besides, I’m fine on my own. I don’t need anyone to complete my life. I’ve got my work, and my research, and you guys.”

“None of those things make you coffee in the morning or suck you off at night.”

Bobbi always had been brash, but that’s kind of what Fitz loved about her. 

“I can get off with someone without having to be in a relationship.”

“Sure, but – okay, maybe it’s just me being in love or whatever, but it’s better in a relationship, Fitz.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Fitz said. “Walk me to the lab?”

“Always.”

Bobbi and Fitz had been friends since Fitz’s last year as an undergrad, an unexpected friendship that had started in the library during finals week, and had blossomed over their shared annoyance of her ex-husband and his antics. Hunter had spent months trying to get Fitz into bed with him, and it had only been Bobbi’s resolve and friendship that had kept Fitz from making that mistake. Since, they’d both graduated, got their masters and then their doctorates, and become professors, with Jemma at their side, of course. He considered Bobbi his family at this point, beyond the fact that she and Jemma were dating and that practically made her his sister-in-law. 

They talked the entire way there, Fitz fussing with the new bag he’d had to buy from the campus store after his old one ripped on his way to his first class. He wasn’t paying attention, and Bobbi was fascinated with her conversation with Jemma on her phone even as she debated the merits of skipping class with Fitz, and they both missed the girl come running out of the library at top speed until she was crashing into Fitz. 

“Holy shit,” she said as Fitz fell backwards and she fell with him. He couldn’t stop himself from holding onto her so at least she fell into him and not onto the hard pavement. It did mean Fitz hit the ground harder and the breath was knocked out of him, her elbow going straight into his stomach. “Oh my god. I’m so sorry.”

When she shifted, Fitz finally saw her face and felt as if someone had punched him in the gut a second time. He’d never seen anyone so beautiful, the way her hair fell around them like a curtain, her eyes alert as she looked him over, her lips full and slightly parted. 

“I’m so sorry,” she repeated. “I need to slow down, and watch where I’m going.”

“That’s okay,” he said. She smiled at him, sheepish at first.

“I should get off you.”

“Are you alright?” Bobbi asked, breaking the moment between them, and helping the girl up off of Fitz. 

“Yes, thank you,” the girl replied. 

“Sure, just leave me on the ground, Bob,” Fitz groaned, pushing himself up onto his elbows. “Incredible friendship we’ve got here. Super solid.”

She rolled her eyes and held out her hand to him next.

“You really are starting to sound like Hunter.”

“Fuck off,” he said, rolling his eyes. He turned to the girl. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay. Thank you. I’m sorry again. Are  _ you  _ okay?”

“It’s okay. I’m alright.”

“Should we exchange insurance? Names? Numbers?”

She was smiling at him, big and wide.

Fitz’s only response was, “Fitz. Leo Fitz.”

He could see Bobbi’s  eye roll in his periphery, but he wasn’t often deterred by her dramatics. Years growing up alongside her and Jemma had eased that social anxiety. He was now immune, mostly. 

“Daisy,” the girl replied, and then stopped to look over her shoulder as a biology teaching assistant Fitz recognized as Lincoln Campbell stepped out of the library and made direct eye contact with her. “I’ve got to get going. I’m sorry again, Leo Fitz.”

Daisy was gone with a flick of her hair, and Fitz stared after her.

“You cannot date a student,” Bobbi reminded him.

“I didn’t say anything about dating her,” he immediately replied, defensive. She put her hand on the small of his back and started to guide him forward towards the science lab for his next class. 

“I’ve seen your infatuated eyes before, and those are definitely it. She’s  gotta be an undergrad or something, Fitz, you can’t.”

He wasn’t much older than the undergrads, even as a full professor, but she was right, even if he hated it. 

“I didn’t say I was going to do anything about it. She’s pretty, that’s all.”

“She is,” Bobbi agreed warily. The science lab was unusually busy as they stepped into the lobby, and they had to weave through a crowd of undergrads outside of one of the lecture halls to get to the stairs. The lab Fitz taught was in the basement and when he got there, his students were leaned against the hallway walls outside instead of being seated at their tables already the way they normally were. “I suspect someone forgot to unlock the doors again.”

Fitz sighed and shuffled through his bag.

“Could today get any worse?”

“I’m sure it could,” Bobbi said.

“It definitely could, and it seems like it's going to, because I don’t seem to have my keys.”

“These keys,” Bobbi asked, pulling a set of keys out of his jacket pocket and jingling them in front of Fitz’s face.

“Kill me,” Fitz said, taking the keys from her. “Just absolutely murder me. You can have the cat and my house, just kill me.”

She patted his shoulder, and then said sweetly, “no.”

“Will you at least bring me a coffee before the meeting? Please.”

“Do you want your usual?” Bobbi asked. 

“Please and thank you.”

She leaned in and kissed him on the cheek.

“See you around,  Fitzy ,” she called as she continued down the hall towards her office. 

One of the students closest to Fitz stared after Bobbi, eyes tracking her figure, and then they looked at Fitz as if questioning how a guy like him ended up with a bombshell like Bobbi. If they were actually together, Fitz would be asking himself that same question. He’d asked it the entire time he’d been with Grant, so sure, why wouldn’t he. 

“Alright, sorry about that.” 

He fumbled with the keys and finally got his lab door open, letting the class inside.

“We’re going to have a little bit of a shorter class today, because in all honesty, today is the worst, and I have a meeting at 3 o’clock across campus.”

* * *

** Too Many Scientists in This Bloody Group Chat (Fuck Off Hunter) **

Bobbi: Can one of you fucks get me a coffee before my next class?

Bobbi: Not you, Jemma, you’re perfect

Bobbi: But Fitz and Hunter, you’re fucks

Hunter: Don’t know how that’s meant to convince me to get you a coffee

Bobbi: Just do it

Bobbi: Or I’ll divorce you again

Fitz: Why am I getting lumped in with Hunter here? I bought you a coffee yesterday 

Bobbi: So? 

Jemma: There’s a fresh iced coffee waiting on your desk

Bobbi: Jemma loves me more than you do

Fitz: That was never in question

Hunter: If Jemma doesn’t love you more than me, then I’m going to have a talk with the both of you about history and repeating mistakes

* * *

The next time he saw Daisy, she was running to catch a bus, tripped and fell and just laid on the pavement as if she’d given up on the day. Fitz had had days like that. He jogged across the street to her.

“Are you okay?”

She raised her head, and her dark brown hair tumbled away from her face with the movement.

“Oh, it’s you,” she laughed. “Hello Leo Fitz.”

“Hello Daisy. Having a rough day?”

She turned onto her side and posed, a piece of gravel stuck to her chin before falling off, leaving an indentation in her skin. Fitz had never seen anything cuter.

“What makes you say that?”

“Just had a feeling.”

He held out his hand, which she took and he helped her to her feet. She was only an inch or two shorter than he was, so when she finally stood, she was at eye level. With Bobbi who was taller than him and wore sky-high heels, and Simmons who was shorter than him, it was nice to have someone on his level. 

“We’ve got to stop meeting like this, then,” she said. “I can’t believe I missed my bus. I have a discussion across campus in five minutes and my car broke down this morning and – sorry, this is not your problem.”

She shook her head, and then looked down at her knee. When she laughed, it was wry and incredulous.

“And apparently I ripped my jeans.”

Fitz looked down, and sure enough, Daisy had in fact ripped the knee on her jeans, and there was a little bit of a scrape visible there. 

“I’ve had those days,” he said. “Are you alright?”

“I’ll be okay.”

“Do you want a ride to class?” he asked. “My car is just over there.”

He pointed to the professors' lot just on the other side of the bus stop.

“Yes, absolutely. You’re a professor?” she asked, following his finger to the parking lot. 

“Yeah, do I not come across as a professor?”

“You’re very young,” she said slowly. “I thought you were a student.”

“I get that a lot.”

He led her towards the parking lot, with her limping a little bit at his side.

“What are you a professor of?”

“Engineering.”

“Oh, really?”

“You’re not the first person to be surprised at that, and I’m not exactly sure what that means for me as a person, but yes, engineering.”

“So, Professor Fitz,” she said, testing it out.

“It’s Doctor, actually, but just Fitz is fine.”

“ _ Doctor _ Fitz,”  she repeated. “ Interesting.”

“What’s so interesting about that?”

She shrugged. At his car, he unlocked the doors and popped open the  back door to dump his bag. He didn’t like the new bag he’d bought from the campus store the day he’d met Daisy,  too stiff and small, but he hadn’t gone shopping for a better one, so he was less gentle with it than he should have been. He was taking his frustration out on the bag when it should be placed elsewhere.

“Actually, I assumed you were a literature student,” she said.

“ _ Literature _ ?”

The way he’d responded was amusing to her because she stifled a laugh and dimpled at him.

God,  she was beautiful, her happiness absolutely radiant.

“ What’s wrong with literature?” she asked.

“Nothing, except everything.”

She  laughed out loud and  slid into his passenger side seat.

“I’m a literature major,” she said, and Fitz froze at the side of the car. He ducked down and looked at her through the window to see her absolutely grinning. “Holy shit, look at your face! I’m joking. I’m a computer science major.”

Fitz let out a breath and relaxed. He climbed into the driver’s seat, and rolled his eyes at her as she cackled.

“English major is a deal breaker for you, huh?” she asked. 

“I wouldn’t say a deal breaker,” Fitz said calmly, “but it is unlikely.”

“Noted,” Daisy replied. 

“Where’s your class?”

“Carter Hall,” she replied.

“That is certainly a hike,” Fitz said, starting up the car. 

It wasn’t a large campus, but it was multi-leveled at the least. Half of the campus was on the hillside, leading up towards the mountain, hidden in the forest. The other half was tucked into the valley, with a thin winding road connecting them. Fitz never understood the choice of location for the college, except that the views were spectacular from the  Mountainview dormitories. It did mean that he got to delightfully watch freshman hike up and down the mountain for his classes, until they figured out the bus system, that is. But for the first few weeks, freshman would huff and puff into his classroom and fall into desks, guzzling water. 

“And my previous lecture never lets out in time to give me the time to get up there, and on days when he’s particularly long-winded, I miss the bus,” Daisy said, and gestured around herself. 

Fitz followed traffic out of the lot and to the road. 

“I tried to sneak out once, and he called me out on it. When I told him I had a discussion course in Carter, he told me I should have planned better.” He couldn’t help his scoff. “I know, right?” 

“I’ve never called a student out like that, because students are adults, and they can manage their own lives. I post all of the class notes and discussion topics after class so anyone who was out can catch up, and if they don’t, that’s up to them.”

Daisy looked at him thoughtfully.

“You sound like a very cool professor.”

“I try to be. We’re all stumbling messes, you know? Not everyone learns the same way, at the same pace, and it is my job to help my students learn, so if I can give some leeway and let them live their lives and learn something new, that’s what I’m going to do. I know, I have this debate with my friends all the time about expectations and how to manage students, but if one person in my class learns something new, especially outside of just the course material, and it helps them in some way, then I’ve done my job.”

Daisy was smiling at him, not a full, bright smile, but something small and contemplative, like she’d forgotten she was smiling in the first place.

Fitz was struck with the desire, all at once, to categorize her smiles, learn their ticks, their triggers, if she had a different smile for different people.

He swallowed, and turned his attention back to the road. The turn for the twister, as it had come to be called long before Fitz had been a baby freshman, was coming up, and he almost always hit a freshman darting out of the tree line trying to cross. 

“Well,” Daisy said when Fitz didn’t continue, “I wish my professors were more like you. I think I’d enjoy class more with someone like you teaching.”

There was something on the edge of flirty in her eyes, and Fitz tried to ignore it. He wasn’t as oblivious as his friends thought he was, not usually, at least. Grant had been – well, among other things, Grant had been an exception. It was hard to believe that he’d wanted Fitz, so he ignored the signs that had been  directed at him, until Grant had thrown signs and hints out the window and decided kissing him breathless against the door of his office was the next course of action. 

His mind, against his wishes, pictured pressing Daisy into the door of his office and kissing her, their hands immediately exploring each other until they were gasping and – 

No, he thought, putting himself back in the present. 

“Academia would be certainly more enjoyable,” he said, and she nodded. He pulled into Carter’s parking lot, and Daisy grinned at him.

“Thank you again,” she said. “I would probably still be wallowing at the bus stop if you hadn’t come by.”

“I’m glad I could be of service.”

She looked him over again, slower this time, appraising in a way that might have been concerning or creepy on someone else.

“I hope we meet again, Doctor Fitz,” she said, and she was gone, heading towards the hall. Fitz watched her go, heart hammering in his throat. 

Fitz: Dating a student, bad, right?

Hunter: Against the rules, mate

Fitz: Getting fired against the rules, or like, people will look down on you but no disciplinary action will be taken against the rules?

Hunter: You know the answer to that

Fitz: Fuck

Bobbi: You cannot date that girl you met

Fitz: How the fuck

Fitz: I’m going to kill Hunter

Fitz: You tattled to Bobbi?

Hunter: Figured it would be best to head this off before I had to watch you fall in love with some student that’ll get you fired

Jemma: What is this about you dating a student?

** Too Many Scientists in This Bloody Group Chat (Fuck Off Hunter) **

Fitz: I’m not dating a student

Bobbi: She’s not pretty enough for you to lose your job

Jemma: It’s against the rules, Fitz. 

Hunter: He knows

Fitz: I’m not dating a student

Fitz: I just needed the reminder not to lose my job

Hunter: How hot is this girl? 

Fitz: Hotter than you

Hunter:  😮

Fitz: She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. Consider: Bobbi, Jemma, and you all have the most gorgeous baby in the world, all of your attractiveness cumulated in this one person. Still not as gorgeous as this girl.

Hunter: Is that possible?

Fitz: If we see her on our walk  Thursday , which we might since she has a class in Carter at 3, I’ll point her out

Bobbi: How do you know her schedule

Bobbi: Are you stalking her

Fitz: No, she missed her bus and I gave her a ride up to Carter

Hunter: Not the only ride you want to give her, it seems

Fitz: Fuck off Hunter

Jemma: How old is this girl?

Fitz: No idea

Fitz: Seemed rude to ask

Jemma: So, she could be like 18 , or younger

Fitz: Could be

Fitz: Could be 26, no idea

Fitz: That’s not the point 

Bobbi: What is the point then

Fitz:  She’s a student, I’m not dating her, I can’t date her, even though she’s pretty and smart and  listens when I talk and has an adorable laugh

Fitz: I’m not dating her

Hunter:  Mate are you in love with this girl

Fitz: No

Fitz: Not yet

Fitz: But I could be

Jemma called him before anyone else could, which wasn’t surprising. He was driving home finally, having sat outside Carter for far too long. 

“What are you doing?” she asked.

“Driving home, what are you doing?”

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it.”

“Yeah,” he agreed. “I know.”

“What are you doing, Fitz? Do you want to get your heart broken again? Do you want another Grant?”

“This isn’t the same thing.”

“No? You’re not falling extraordinarily quickly for someone out of reach?”

“Grant wasn’t out of reach; he was just emotionally unavailable.”

“It’s going to end the same way. You’re going to fall in love with this girl, and you’re going to break your own heart when she doesn’t love you back.”

Fitz sighed but didn’t say anything. 

“I’m trying not to,” he said.

“That’s not – okay, I know you have a lot of love in your heart, Fitz, and someday, someone is going to see that and love you the right way, but some student isn’t the right person.”

He didn’t argue, because arguing with Jemma would just make him feel worse, and it would make Bobbi mad at him, and then Hunter would be mad at him, and he didn’t have enough friends to spare once you eliminated those three. 

He didn’t argue, but he wanted to tell her that Daisy didn’t feel like Grant, didn’t feel like a burning he had to purge from him to think straight. She was bright, and warm, but she didn’t hurt. He barely knew her, of course, but if he had the chance, he’d listen to her talk about her courses, and her professors, and her hopes forever.

“Just be careful,” Jemma said.

“I will.”

“I love you.”

“Love you, too.”

* * *

The next time he saw Daisy, he was  mildly  drunk. Mack and Hunter had decided to take him out to try and get him laid, probably, or to get his mind off his miserable love life. They’d matched him shot for shot, and then promptly Hunter had to run off to the bathroom to puke. Mack, a better friend than Fitz, stumbled after him. It was all extremely blurry, and Fitz was lucky to make it to the bar upright. 

She was behind the bar in a tight black tank top, her hair loose around her shoulders, and there was a lot of skin on display. Fitz had never seen clavicles look so enticing before, watching the way the bar lights and neon signs play off her skin, the muscles in her arms as she shook a cocktail shaker. She noticed him staring at her, unable to keep his eyes  to himself.

“Long time no see,” she said , sidling up to the bar across from him after finishing with the other customer. 

“Hey,” he said . 

“ You having a good night, Doctor Fitz?”

“Just Fitz, please. And it’s much better now that you’re here.”

She grinned at him and leaned toward him.

“ Where are your friends, Just Fitz?”

“ Ahh , well, Hunter is throwing up in the bathroom, and Mack is being a good friend and making sure he doesn’t drown himself.”

“I appreciate that. I do not want to clean that up.”

Fitz laughed and  looked down at his hands.

“Can I get you something to drink?” she asked, gesturing behind her.

“I’d probably better have a water.”

“Good choice,” she said, ducking down under the counter for a bottle of water. “On the house. I owe you.”

“How’s that?”

“I do believe since we’ve met, I’ve literally ran into you and made you fall, and on top of that, fallen on you. And another time, you gave me a ride when you literally could’ve just walked the other way. You have been extremely kind to me, so I owe you at least a free bottle of water.”

“Well, I guess I’ll say thank you, but it’s not something you owe me, Daisy.”

She leaned in and smiled at him, her face open and sincere. 

“I’ll get even, Just Fitz,” she said, a promise on her beautiful lips. A promise that Fitz, somewhere, despite everything, hoped she’d keep. “I always do.”

“I look forward to it,” Fitz replied, and they looked at each other for a long moment, too long to be considered friendly, or polite. But Daisy hadn’t been called away to tend to another customer, and Fitz couldn’t think of a reason to look away yet. He wanted to know more about her, find out about the fire and intelligence in her eyes, bright and unafraid. He wanted to get to know her, and find the edges of her heart, hold her against him and show her – he didn’t know what. He just wanted to spend more time with her, more than he was owed, more than he deserved. She was a student. He was a teacher. 

That was against the rules, and he could lose his job. It was the only thing that kept him from leaning over the counter between them and asking her out, asking to kiss her, asking her for – he didn’t know that either. Something.

Except, she could be as young as  eighteen . 

There was a maturity to her gaze, wisdom earned from pain and scars, but that didn’t mean she was old enough. Fitz had had that kind of wisdom in his eyes before he’d hit puberty, his father’s anger and ire too sharp, always leaving Fitz scarred. 

“Fitz,” she started to say, but was cut off by someone waving towards her. “My cue. You stay right there, okay?”

She stepped away, pointing two fingers at her eyes and then jabbing them towards him. 

“Okay.”

Fitz drank his water, watching Daisy in the reflection of the mirror behind the bar, the way her hair shifted as she moved, the grace in how she poured drinks, the easy way she smiled and joked with the customers. Maybe they were regulars, maybe they weren’t, but Daisy treated them all the same. 

“Hey,” Mack said, sidling up next to Fitz. He turned his attention to his friend, who followed his gaze for a moment to Daisy, halfway through pouring a beer for one of the customers at the other end of the bar. He raised an eyebrow at Fitz, but said nothing about it. “We should get going. Hunter needs to sleep this off. I have a cab on the way.”

“Right,” Fitz said. He caught Daisy’s eyes as she glanced their way, and he nodded towards the door. She nodded back and gave him a little wave, and he tried not to feel the hope that she didn’t want him to go either. “Where ,  uhh – where _ is _ Hunter?”

Mack turned around on his heel and surveyed the bar. The door outside shut and Mack cursed, muttering something about Hunter being a slippery bastard. He was remarkably sober considering how drunk he was. Mack had gotten good at gathering up their group of friends and leading them places, although he would always compare it to herding cats. 

Fitz watched Mack go, promising to stay put until Mack came to get him. He checked his email, both his personal and his university email, and checked his Facebook for any interesting drama. 

Five minutes later, though, Mack and Hunter hadn’t returned.

“Did you get left behind, Just Fitz?” Daisy asked.

“I might have, yeah,” he said, turning back to her. “I was told to wait here, so I suppose I will  be a good boy and  wait here.”

“Drink your water. Do you want something to eat?” Daisy asked, ducking her head into a door to her right that led into a kitchen. “Trip still has the grill on if you want a grilled cheese. He makes the best grilled cheese in town.”

“I wouldn’t say no,” Fitz replied. 

“Triplett, one grilled cheese, please,” she called into the kitchen. There was an echoing call from inside and she smiled at Fitz. “Also, on the house.”

Fitz couldn’t help the smile on his face.

“Is Hunter a professor, too?” Daisy asked. “He looks familiar.”

“He is, in the Health and Wellness department. He teaches ,  ahh , what’s it called, Rape Aggression Defense, as well as Men’s Personal Wellness, and this semester, I think,  he’s teaching Wellness through Yoga, among others.”

“ Ahh , yeah, my parents made me take the Rape Aggression Defense freshman year. That’s how I know him. He teaches yoga now?”

“His courses are always full with a waitlist,” Fitz said, “even more so now that girls are lining up to see him be ridiculously flexible. The rest of us never hear the end of it, honestly. He’s pretty and English and can nearly twist himself in half, so that certainly helps.”

Daisy laughed.

“I don’t know, you’re pretty, and have that sexy Scottish accent going for you.”

Fitz shook his head, but Daisy leaned in and caught his eyes.

“I’d take your class if I knew anything about engineering,” she said. 

“I –  uhhh – thank you.”

“And your other friend there? The tall, black man? Professor, or?”

“No,” Fitz said. “He always said that academia wasn’t for him, but he is a brilliant mechanic at the garage he owns around the corner. If I ever lost my job for whatever reason, at least Mack would hire me.”

“I don’t think you would have any trouble finding a place to hire you,” she said.

“Well, thank you,” Fitz said. “So, you’re a student by day, bartender by night. Any other secret talents I should know about?”

“I’m secretly a superhero,” she fake-whispered at him with a playful wink. “But no, I’m not anything special.”

“Well, that’s certainly not true,” Fitz protested. “You’re already very kind to me when you barely know me. That's not something everybody does.”

She frowned minutely at him, and he wanted to smooth the edges with his thumb, feeling the softness of his lips.

“You’re right. You’re right. That’s definitely my ex speaking,” she said after a moment, letting out a steadying sigh. “Trip always says I need to have more confidence, and not let the ex drag me down.”

“Yeah, mine too,” he agreed.

“She rough on you, too?”

“ Uhh , well,  _ he _ was, yes.”

“Oh! You’re –” she trailed off.

“Bisexual, yes,” he supplied. “He didn’t really understand how love should feel and act, I guess. He’d been through a lot before we met, so he didn’t know how to be soft about things.”

“Sound familiar,” she laughed. “You’re extremely interesting, Fitz.”

“I could say the same about you, though. You’re near a mystery to me.”

“If you have questions, I’ll answer them. All you have to do is ask.”

“Really?” She nodded, pulling the rag from her jeans pocket and wiping down a spot to Fitz’s right absently. “Why computer science, then?”

“ Ahh , well, I’m very good with computers, and had a tendency to just find my way into the back door for some organizations who didn’t like that. Got caught sneaking into the CIA database, they let me off with a warning, and a job offer. They said if I got my degree, they’d have a spot for me in their agency. Not really the thing I want to do, not for that type of organization, but it got me thinking about what I could do with those skills, how many people I could help, what good I could do, and it led me here – well, not  _ here,  _ obviously, but to the university.”

“You’re a hacker with a heart of gold, then,” Fitz said.

“Here you go, girl, order up,” a voice said and a disembodied hand set a paper basket with a grilled cheese cut diagonally in half near Daisy’s elbow. 

“Thanks, Trip.”

She passed it over to Fitz with a grin.

“Try that, you’ll be a changed man,” she said. Fitz felt changed already just knowing her. He picked up one of the halves and took a bite. Daisy was right, it was the best grilled cheese he’d ever had (sorry, Hunter). The rye bread was crisp on the outside, and soft on the inside, deliciously buttery, and the cheese was a sharp cheddar melted to perfection. When he looked up from the sandwich, she was staring at him, and he swore – or he hoped – that her eyes lingered on his lips. “Good?”

He nodded emphatically. 

“Trip’s grilled cheese has gotten me through midterms, finals, heartbreak, double shifts. So far there’s nothing that this sandwich can’t do.”

Fitz set the sandwich down as he swallowed. Daisy slid him a napkin for his hands.

“It is magic,” he agreed.

“Yes, magic! You get it! I’ve had this argument with my mom about this. She said no decent sandwich comes from a bar, but the best food comes from bars.”

“Much experience with bar food?” he asked. He didn’t want to come out straight and ask her how old she was, but he also knew that, in a college town, familiarity with bars did not mean that she was twenty-one either.

She gestured around them at the bar.

“One location doesn’t speak for the whole of bar food quality,” he argued.

“That’s true. Maybe this place is just an anomaly, then.”

“It’s a good one at least.”

Daisy got called away by another customer, and Fitz ate his grilled cheese while she worked, admiring her grace and easy motions. There was a fluidity to her movements, familiarity and repetition easing the edges.

He checked his phone, but Mack hadn’t updated him yet. He hoped Hunter was okay. Bobbi or Jemma would’ve messaged him at the very least if he was hurt. At least, he thought they might. Unless Hunter was super hurt, and they were mourning or panicking. Still, he hoped that one of them would take half a second to update him. 

“You okay?” Daisy asked, coming back over to his side. “I’m  going to start closing. Do you need anything else before I close the bar for good?”

“I’m good, thank you.”

“If your friend doesn’t come back, I can give you a ride,” she said. 

“I would appreciate that,” he said. “If you don’t mind.”

“Not at all,” she replied. “I want to make sure you get home safe.”

He smiled, and she winked at him before moving away to start working. Fitz stayed at the bar while Daisy worked, watching her work happily. She’d stop by to check on him, ask him a question, tell him about a customer she’d had recently. It was nice. 

“Alright, guys, time to go,” Daisy said to the two remaining men at the opposite end of the bar. They stood, throwing back their drinks. “Tip your bartender, boys.”

They each put down a five dollar on the bar and saluted her on their way out.

“Do you mind helping me out?” Daisy asked, pocketing the money and set a rag and a bottle of sanitizer spray on the counter in front of him with a grin. 

“Sure, I can work for my ride.”

“Just spray the tables down and wipe up the sanitizer. Anything sticky, just give it a good rub.”

“I’m very good at rubbing,” he answered easily, and she gave him a pleased and delighted grin.

“Good to hear,” she said. 

He took his spray bottle and his rag over to the booths around the edges of the bar, and Daisy turned up the radio. He moved to the beat as much as he was capable, but mostly he listened to them, twin voices from Daisy and Trip, deep in the kitchen, singing along to the pop songs on the radio as loud as possible. Daisy used the broom as a microphone, performing as if she were on stage in front of a large crowd. She was so full of life, in a way that Fitz didn’t know what to do with. His friends were good, lights in his life that kept him going, but they weren’t like this Daisy had been in class all day, and then had worked a full shift at the bar, and still had enough energy to dance and sing enthusiastically. She was vibrant, fireworks in the sky, sparklers in the dark. 

“Alright,” she said, the bar cleaned and reset for the next day. “Trip, you good?”

“Yeah. You’ve got the deposit?”

“I do,” she said, a black plastic bag in one hand, the other on the light switch behind the bar. “I’ll take Fitz here as witness, if you want to head straight home. It’ll be okay.”

“See you tomorrow, then?” Trip asked, eying Fitz a little, as if assessing him to see if he was a threat. That was a little hilarious to Fitz who had to be rescued from his ex-boyfriend and broke his hand the first, and last, time he’d thrown a punch. His father would be very disappointed.

“I actually don’t work tomorrow,” Daisy said “I’m having an adoption day anniversary dinner with Mom and Dad, so Elena will be here instead.”

“That’s cool. Happy anniversary, then.”

Fitz didn’t know that she was adopted, and fit that into the picture he was building of her.

“Thank you,” she said, flipping the lights off. “Coming, Fitz?”

“Yeah,” he said. “Lead the way.”

Trip followed them out back to their cars, pausing with them as Daisy locked the door, and then waved as he headed towards his own car. 

“I did not know that you were adopted,” Fitz said as they climbed into her car.

“Yeah, so, my birth parents gave me up when I was a baby, and I lived in the foster care system for most of my life, bouncing from orphanages, to group homes, to temporary placements. Then my parents came along and gave me a permanent home when I was fifteen. I was really lucky to find them, and it’s only recently that I came to that realization. I was bitter about my birth parents and couldn’t look past that. When I turned eighteen, my birth parents found me, told me my real name, my real date of birth, so I changed my name to Daisy Johnson, but my parents, my mom and dad, they’re my family, they chose me.”

“What was your name before, if you don’t mind me asking?”

“I went by Skye.”

“Skye,” he echoed. 

“I like the way it sounds from your mouth,” Daisy said. “But I prefer how you say Daisy.”

“Daisy,” he said just for her.

“I’d listen to you read academic literature, though,” she said. “I’d listen to you read just the driest shit you’d ever encounter. I love your voice.”

Her eyes were bright, and honest as she started the car.

“Where do you live, Doctor Fitz?” she asked.

“Near the university, on the river,” he said.

“Alright,” she said, and started to drive. She made a quick stop at the bank to drop the deposit in the night deposit box. “Do your friends leave you behind often?”

“No,” he replied. “I think Jemma would have their scalps if they made a habit of this.”

“And Jemma is?” she trailed off suggestively.

“My best friend. She’s a biology professor at the university, we’ve been friends since we were teenagers. She’s – you’d like her.”

“I would, huh?”

“She’s easy to like. As are you.”

“Flatterer,” Daisy said, but there was no heat or accusation in her tone.

“Always,” he replied.

He had to stop flirting because flirting would lead places he wasn’t supposed to go. But the alcohol in his system wanted it, and more importantly, so did he. He wanted to hang out and flirt with her, and see where this went. Before Daisy, Fitz wasn’t sure he’d ever fully heal from Grant, not enough to want someone else. Grant had turned Fitz into someone else, someone angry and broken, who didn’t believe he could be loved. But Daisy made him want to be loved, made him want to be soft, be worthy of her attention.

“Have you ever thought of her that way, though?” Daisy asked.

“No,” he said immediately. “No, she’s always been just a friend. Family, even. Besides, Jemma has a girlfriend who can kick my ass without looking.”

Daisy laughed, a truly delightful noise. 

“But even before Bobbi was in our lives, Jemma’s like a part of me, but platonically.”

“That sounds amazing. I wish I had a friend that close.”

Fitz knew that he was lucky to have been granted Jemma Simmons in his life. He had grown up with an angry father and a loving but working mothing, and nearly no friends because he skipped so many grades. When life gave him Jemma, it was like an apology for what it had put him through already.

“Turn here,” he said, pointing towards the street that led to his neighborhood. 

“Oh, fancy territory,” she said.

“Oh, super fancy. My neighbors on one side have six kids that always end up throwing their footballs into my backyard,” he said. “And my other neighbor blew up his grill last week.”

“What? Was everyone okay?”

“Far as I could tell. But it’s a quiet neighborhood, except when shit happens, shit  _ happens _ .”

“I like the sound of that. I live in an apartment building downtown and my upstairs neighbor has decided to try river dancing. I swear, I’m not even kidding. I thought I was imagining it, but they have wooden shoes, I saw them! I know that’s, like, your heritage but goddamn.”

“River dancing is Irish,” he said.

“Well, still, it’s close.”

He laughed.

“You’ll have to come over, because I know it sounds incredulous, but I’m not lying.”

“I believe you.”

She glanced at him, and asked, “do you want to come over, then?”

“Right now?”

“No, not now,” she said, reaching over and pushing his shoulder half-heartedly. “Obviously, dummy.”

“Turn here,” Fitz said, gesturing to his street. “It’s about halfway down the street, right hand side.”

“Okay,” Daisy said. She slowed down.

“That blue one.”

“With the Liverpool flag out front?”

“Ye – excuse me?” She pulled out front of his house. “I’m going to kill Hunter.”

“What?”

“Don’t worry about it. That’s just not my team.”

“And who do you support?”

“Manchester United,” Fitz answered.

“That means nothing to me,” she said. “But I can always help you get him back for this.”

He grinned at her.

“I would like that.”

“Good. I like this house,” she said.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah, it’s cute. I like the little porch swing, and the – do you have a cat?”

“I do,” Fitz said, looking towards his house. “That’s Glitch.”

“ _ Glitch _ ?” Daisy asked. “That’s adorable.”

“Yeah, she’s a little  glitchy . She has a neurological disorder so she stumbles around and into walls.”

“I need to meet her.”

“Next time?” he asked, turning to look at her. She smiled, and nodded. 

“Next time.”

She put her car in park and leaned towards him, to look through his window at the house. He could smell her shampoo, she was so close, and if he peaked out of the corner of his eye, he could see down her tank top. 

“Fitz,” she muttered, and he looked at her. She was so close. God, she was so close. He leaned in without thinking, and pressed his lips into hers. She pressed back into him, making a small noise of surprise. He pulled away at that noise, needing to know she wanted this too.

“Okay?”

“Yeah,” she whined, and reeled him back in for another kiss. This one was deeper, her tongue sliding into his mouth eagerly. He pressed back into her, hand coming up to her neck, thumb stroking over her pulse which pounded underneath his touch. 

“I’ve been waiting for you to do that,” she said when she broke away, smoothing her thumb over his lower lip. “Since we met.”

“Sorry, I’m a little slow when it comes to this stuff.”

“Better slow than not at all.”

She kissed him again, and again. They stayed in her car for a while, breathing in each other’s air until Fitz  had to break away, his heart thumping in his chest, his dick half hard just from kissing her. 

“I should go,” he said. “But thank you.”

“For?”

“Mmm, everything,” he decided. 

“Good,” she said. “Here, give me your phone.”

He handed it over to her, unlocked, and watched as she added herself as a contact, and then called herself to give herself his number, too.

“There,” she said. “If your friends leave you at a bar again, or if you just want to say hi without bumping into me first, you know where to find me.”

“Okay.”

She grinned.

“Goodnight, Just Fitz.”

“Goodnight, Daisy.”

* * *

** From:  ** ** Fitz, Leopold  **

** To: Classes **

** 1:13 am **

** Subject: Nope **

Classes,

Due to poor decision making, I’m be unable to hold our class today. Do your  works . Read your readings.  S ee you next session.

-Fitz

P.S. never let your friends  buy shots if they use the phrase “keep up” 

* * *

When he woke up in the morning, it was to a good morning text from Daisy, and a long list of notifications from Mack panicking. 

Mack:  W here the fuck did you go , Turbo

Mack:  P lease don’t be dead

Mack: Bobbi will kill me if you’re dead in a ditch  somewhere

Fitz:  You left me at the bar last night

Fitz:  But I’m no t dead,  I’m  at home, I got a ride 

Mack:  F rom who?

Mack:  Di d you use protection?

Fitz:  Li terally just a ride in a car to my house  😂

Mack:  Do n’t tell Bobbi I lost you

Fitz: Mack told me not to tell you but you scare me more than he does

Fitz: He left me at the bar last night to get a ride home from a stranger

Bobbi: Noted. Are you hungover?

Fitz: No, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep  and I apparently drunkenly cancelled my classes last night

Fitz: Do you want me to bring you a croissant?

Bobbi: Yes please

Mack:  Yo u told Bobbi!

Fitz:  S he scares me more than you

Fitz:  S orry not sorry 

* * *

Bobbi was slumped over the front lab table when Fitz walked through the door to the classroom. He had everyone’s schedules memorized, which might be creepy if they also didn’t have his schedule memorized or saved to their phone too. They had a tendency to drop into classes, office hours, grab someone on their way to lunch if they were free. It was on their  RateMyProfessor pages that you didn’t often see one of them alone on campus. Not that Fitz cared about what was on their  RateMyProfessor pages. 

“You alright?” he asked. 

“Oh my god, Fitz, you’re beautiful,” she groaned, reaching for the bakery bag and  large iced coffee he’d brought her. His next stop was Je mm a’s class  with her London Fog latte and  chocolate chip muffin. “Class, thank Fitz for your passing grades today.”

Her students looked up from their work stations at them.

“ Thank you?” one of the closer students said, looking at Fitz, clearly confused.

“ How did Mack leave you at the bar, anyway?”

“Hunter had to throw up, so Mack was in the bathroom with him, while I got a water from the bar, and when I was ordering, Mack said he had a  cab on the way, but Hunter had already left the bar. Mack told me to stay put until he came to get me, and then never came back.”

“How’d you get home, then?”

“ Uhh , the bartender gave me a ride home.”

“I thought you were kidding about the stranger bit.”

“I was. The bartender was Daisy.”

“ _ Leopold _ ,”  she scolded loudly. The class froze, and Bobbi excused them both, dragging him from the room and into the vacant hallway . 

“Nothing happened.  She gave me a grilled cheese and a ride home. All we did was talk. Well, sort of. ”

“ Sort of? What does that mean?”

“I kissed her, a little, and  she kissed me, more than a little.”

She punched him hard in the arm.

“Hey!” he yelped, rubbing the sore spot on his bicep. “ It was just a kiss.”

“A kiss with someone you shouldn’t be near with your lips! Is that why you brought me the coffee and croissant? Are they  _ guilt _ gifts?”

“No, not exactly.”

“Fitz,” she said, voice low. “You can’t see her again.”

“It’s not like I intentionally  saw her this time, you know.”

“Did you get her number?”

“No,” he lied.

“Delete it,” Bobbi said. She was much more perceptive than  any biologist had the right to be. She’d make a good spy, he was sure, intimidating, resourceful,  beautiful, intelligent. She always knew when he was lying, which was frustrating and freeing that he never had to keep track of the lies he’d told her. 

When he’d been dating Grant, he’d had to skirt around the truth, a balancing act of lying by omission and changing the subject. Bobbi was the first one to notice, though, and the first one to get Hunter involved. Hunter, sweet, ridiculous Hunter, had had enough shitty boyfriends to not let his friends suffer through if he could help it. He’d swept in like a knight in shining armor right when Fitz needed him most, put himself in between Fitz and Grant, and escorted Fitz out of their apartment and back to Bobbi’s. 

“Are you alright?” Hunter had asked, voice low and his hand on the small of Fitz’s back. “Did he hurt you?”

Fitz had shaken his head, and Hunter’s fist had curled in the material of his shirt. 

“He won’t come anywhere near you again,” he had said. “Bobbi and I will make sure of it.”

He trusted Hunter, but it was Bobbi’s name said like a promise that had convinced Fitz.

It was Bobbi’s face that almost convinced him to take out his phone and delete Daisy’s number in front of her. Except he remembered the way Daisy’s lips had felt against his, and the tiny noise she’d made in surprise, but not offense, when he’d kissed her. 

“Fitz,” she said steadily. “You can’t see her again, not if you want to keep your job. I know you like her, but sweetie, Fitz –”

She cut herself off and sighed. 

“I know you don’t want to say goodbye, it’s been so long since you liked someone this much, but Fitz, you  _ will _ lose your job.”

Fitz didn’t say it, and he didn’t have to. Bobbi knew that if Daisy asked, he would lose the world for her. 

“Don’t tell Jemma,” Bobbi said.

“You want me to lie to my best friend?”

“Jemma is closer to the Board of Directors than any of us. Don’t ask her to put her own job on the line for this, not when she’s so close to her research goal.”

Fitz sighed, and nodded.

“You’re right.”

“I know, I usually am.”

* * *

He wrote a text message to Daisy over and over, telling her he couldn’t see her again, couldn’t kiss her, couldn’t touch her, even though he ached for her. They weren’t dating, they weren’t anything, but Fitz didn’t want to break up with her over text message. He was not that kind of guy. 

Draft after draft, he deleted.

In the end, she texted him first.

Daisy: Guess who’s bored

Daisy: Me

Daisy: I’m bored

Daisy: Give me attention

Fitz: Good afternoon to you too

Fitz: How is your day going, dear?

Daisy: That’s more like it!

Daisy: My day is terrible, thank you for asking

Fitz: Want to talk about it?

Daisy: Can I call you?

Fitz: Anytime you need, yeah

It started with that call. 

She called him every night after that, usually while he was grading assignments. It started with a  phone call, but she complained about not being able to see his face, so they switched to video chat. 

“You look good in grey,” she said one night. 

“That lighting is really working for you,” she said another.

“I’d kill for your blue eyes,” she said offhand one night.

“Why? Your eyes are so beautiful,” he said without thinking, marking an incorrect question. 

“Please, they’re just  _ brown.” _

_ “ _ They’re not, though,” Fitz said. “First of all, there’s no such thing as  _ just brown _ eyes. Your eyes  are lighter or darker depending on the lighting, and  there’s these flecks of gold  and dark, dark brown. When you’re in the sunshine,  your eyes are more bright, like a tawny  brown, like Tiger’s Eye gemstones.”

He  blushed . 

“Leo Fitz, do you have a  _ crush _ on me?” she teased. 

“ No,” he replied. “Not at all.”

She laughed, and he loved that sound.

“ That’s  unfortunate, because I certainly like you.”

He looked at her on his screen,  admiring the way her hair fell around her shoulders , the  slim line of her neck, the sharpness of her jaw,  the  curve of her smile. She was so beautiful that this didn’t feel real.

“Unfortunate, ” he echoed. 

* * *

They texted every day, too, starting when Fitz woke up until when he went asleep.

Daisy: Favorite color?

Fitz: Green

Fitz: Favorite movie?

Daisy: Parent Trap

Daisy: Favorite Doctor Who episode?

Fitz: Doomsday

Fitz: Show you’ve watched multiple times?

Daisy: Parks and Rec

Daisy: Ever played D&D?

Fitz: Yes, I played a half elven paladin of  Avandra

Daisy: What was his name?

Fitz: Her name was Kith

Daisy: Will you teach me to play?

Fitz: It’s more of a group activity, but if someone starts up a game, I’ll definitely invite you

Daisy:  😊

* * *

Fitz: How’s studying going?

Daisy: My nap was great thanks for asking

* * *

Fitz: I just saw a girl wipe out outside of the library

Fitz: Reminded me of you

Daisy:  Awww miss you too

* * *

Daisy: Remind me murder is illegal

Fitz: Depends, who needs to be murdered?

Daisy: My ex

Daisy: Showed up at  the bar wanting to talk

Daisy: Can I call you?

Fitz: Always

“Hello,” he said, picking up when she called. She was frowning on the other end of the phone,  but even that  face made Fitz's heart beat fast. “Oh, hello, frowny pants.”

She laughed and  the frown disappeared.

“Calling you was the best choice. Grant doesn’t matter when you’re here.”

“Grant?” Fitz asked.

“Yeah, he’s my ex. The one I told you about before.”

“Yeah, but his name is  _ Grant _ ?  Grant what?”

She narrowed his eyes at him.

“Ward.”

He let out a bark of a laugh, and had to set his phone down. 

“Grant Ward,” he laughed. Grant’s face flashed through Fitz's mind from the last time they’d seen each other, Hunter and Mack flanking Fitz as he packed up his stuff from the apartment. “That makes sense.”

She frowned again from where he could see her face, tilted to the side, his camera facing the ceiling of his kitchen.

“What’s so funny?”

“ Nothing, except  _ my  _ ex I told you about is Grant Ward.”

“What?”

“I  don’t know if it’s the same guy, but there can’t be more than one Grant Ward in the area who  doesn’t know how to be good yet.”

“Do you have any pictures with him?” Daisy asked. He nodded. “Send me one.”

Fitz switched  to his camera roll and then scrolled through to a selfie he’d taken with Grant a month before their relationship had finally exploded. They’re both smiling in the photo,  Grant leaned into Fitz. His hand, not pictured, had slipped down from his waist and  squeezed his ass just after the photo was taken. He selected it and sent it to Daisy in their text chat. 

She had sent him one, too.  It was a selfie from Grant’s angle, Daisy tucked into his side,  and she was looking up at him lovingly. Same man, same smile, same  shirt he always wore for date nights. What got Fitz, though, more than anything was the bruise  along his jaw  and the split lip in the photo , one of his arms slung around her shoulders, the knuckles of his visible hand, his dominant hand dark with bruises . 

Grant and Fitz had gone to a bar one night after dinner to drink and relax, and  Fitz had kissed Grant on the  way to the bathroom. When he’d come back, Grant  had gone out the back to face some homophobic pricks from the bar that threatened Fitz, apparently.  The other guys had taken a far worse beating, but Fitz had kissed Grant’s knuckles where they’d bruised . He’d always remember the bruises left on Grant’s skin from that night.

“I knew he’d cheated,” Fitz laughed. He switched  back to the video chat and Daisy was staring  at him, mouth hanging open a little bit.

“ We dated the same guy,” she said.

“We dated the same guy at the same time,” he added.

“What? What do you mean?”

“The bruises from that photo you sent,  I’m the reason he got those. Some drunk  bastards at this bar we were at took offense to me kissing  him,  and started some shit with Grant. Except Grant is, well, you know,  military trained, and be a t the shit out of them. If you took this couple selfie with him when he had these bruises, we were dating him at the same time.”

“Oh,” she said. “ Huh.”

“ Does that change anything for you?” he asked. 

“For me? Why would it? I’m the one your boyfriend cheated on you with.”

“Technically, he cheated on you with me, too.”

She shook her head.

“We’re not at fault here, Fitz. You didn’t know about me, I didn’t know about you. The only person to blame here is Grant.”

He nodded. They were quiet for a long moment, and Daisy sighed.

“Can I tell you about what the jerk did today? Will that be too  weird for you?”

“No, fuck Grant. He doesn’t have power over us. Go ahead and tell me.”

* * *

Daisy: Want to get dinner with me? After your last class?

Fitz: I’d love to

Daisy: Meet me at the professor’s lot?

Fitz: 5:45, see you then

It started with dinner, Fitz and Daisy laughing too loud for the nice restaurant she’d chosen. It turned into a walk around the park, which turned into Daisy dragging him into a nightclub to dance with her, which turned into kissing in the darkened hallway, which turned into Daisy asking him to take her home, and then directing him to his house instead. 

Dinner turned into breakfast, a breakfast they made together, Daisy trailing kisses over his bare shoulder while he stood at the stove, her body pressed into his back. She had found one of his t-shirts to sleep in, and he never wanted to see her wear anything else.

Glitch, who had been hiding when they’d stumbled through the front door the night before, made an appearance, bumping into Fitz’s ankle and then Daisy’s. Any other cat, it would have been intentional, a sign of affection, but he watched Glitch stumble into the counter a second later. She darted off before Fitz could point her out to Daisy. She’d be back. It was almost breakfast for her, too. 

“Can I ask you a question?” he asked, leaning back into Daisy’s touch, returning his attention to her and the breakfast cooking on the stove. She hummed, sucking a mark into his shoulder. “How old are you?”

“Twenty-six,” she said, removing her mouth from his skin.

“Are you really?” he asked. “What year are you in?”

“What do you mean?”

“Are you a junior, senior?”

“I’m a grad student. You didn’t know that?”

“No.”

“Naughty boy,” she cooed. “Do you teach graduate courses?”

“I don’t. Those are typically tenured professors. I haven’t been with the university long enough. I mostly teach undergraduate freshman courses, and some upper level courses.”

“Can you get in trouble for this?” she asked, resting her chin against him. “I don’t want you to lose your job, Fitz.”

“I won’t.”

“How do you know that?”

“You said you graduate soon, yeah?” he asked, turning in her arms to hold her against his chest. “You’re not my student. You’re not in my department. You would never be in a position where I would be in power over you. If we want to keep doing this, we can.”

Daisy tipped her head back and kissed his throat. 

“What if you’re wrong? What if even with those stipulations, you lose your job? You love teaching,” Daisy said. 

“But I love you more,” he said, and then immediately froze. 

“Fitz,” Daisy said softly.

“No, no, it’s okay. You don’t have to say it back. I just, I do,” he said. “I don’t want you to feel rushed or anything, but I love you.”

“Are you sure?”

He laughed and kissed her, holding her jaw.

“ Of course , I’m sure, I was sure that first day we met.”

“I bowled you over and knocked you to the ground.”

“You did, and I was  gone already.”

“Sap,” she said.

“Yeah.”

She kissed him, pressing him into a counter behind him. He made an unintentional noise into her mouth, taking her face in his hands. He was too preoccupied with the way her tongue slid along his, the smoothness of her skin underneath his hands, the noises she made. He didn’t notice that Jemma and Bobbi had let themselves into his house and had frozen in the doorway. It was Daisy who noticed, her hands sliding along his ribs and pausing as she pulled away to say something.

“Oh,” she said. He followed her gaze, and  almost dropped his hands from Daisy as if that would make him  less guilty, less caught. 

“Leopold ,” Bobbi said, voice even but dangerous. 

“Good morning, ” Jemma said, carrying  a bag from a bakery  and a cup of coffee for him. “ Who’s this?”

“Daisy,” Daisy  offered when Fitz didn’t say anything immediately. 

“Right,  this is Daisy.  Daise , this is Bobbi and Jemma, the biology professors that I told you about, my best friends.” 

Daisy smiled welcomingly and stepped away from Fitz to offer them her hand. Jemma, who was polite almost to a fault sometimes, took Daisy’s hand to shake. 

“It’s nice to meet you,” Jemma said.  She meant it, but only because Jemma didn’t know that Daisy was the girl they’d all told him not to get involved with. 

“ It’s nice to meet you too, Fitz speaks very highly of you,” Daisy said. 

Jemma beamed at her,  and said, “ I’m sorry I don’t have anything for you, I didn’t know you’d be here.  I suppose you can have Fitz's  Danish if you’d like it.”

Fitz made a noise of protest, trying to ignore Bobbi’s glare .  He didn’t know when she’d unleash her tirade, but he hoped it would wait until  Daisy left. 

“Are you a student at the university?” Jemma asked.

“I am,” Daisy said. “ I graduate in the spring. I’m working on my thesis right now . I’ve got the program half completed but  the actual essay thesis is proving difficult .”

Fitz smiled at her. He’d let  her  talk about her thesis for hours if she wanted, proud of her giving what she’d told him. 

“ You’re a graduate student?” Bobbi asked.

“I am. I had a little bit of a late start. Got into some trouble with a group of people  who I thought were doing good but, well, they were just using my hacking skills to do whatever they wanted.”

“Everybody’s academic journey is different,” Jemma said. “It’s good that you’re pursuing what you want, even if you stumbled along the way.”

Daisy smiled at her, and nodded.

“ I like her,” Daisy said to Fitz.

“Told you  you would,” he replied.

“Leopold, a word?” Bobbi asked, nodding towards the back yard.  He stepped away from Daisy, stopping to kiss her cheek. There was a moment where her gaze flicked between Bobbi and  Fitz, confused at the weird hostility between them. He’d only ever told her how supportive and fun  Bobbi was, not how deadly she could be. 

“ You Leopold me twice, you’re getting a Barbara back,” he warned her on the way through the  living room.  In the backyard, Fitz pulled the sliding glass door shut and crossed his arms across his chest. “Alright, go for it. Tell me I fucked up.”

“You fucked up,” Bobbi repeated.

“Okay,” he said.

“You told me you weren’t going to do anything, that it was just a kiss, that you had just talked.”

“At that point, it was, and we had.”

She let out a slow deliberate breath.

“And then what happened?”

“We talked some more, and I got to know her, and I love her and –”

“Excuse me, you  _ what _ ?” Bobbi asked.

“As if you didn’t expect that,” he scoffed.

“I thought after Grant that you’d be a little more cautious, but no, you’re the same foolish love sick puppy you’ve always been. You barely know this girl.”

“That’s not true,” Fitz said, ignoring the jab. “I talk to her every day, and have since that night at the bar.”

“When I told you to delete her number, and then you didn’t,” she added.

“Yes,” he agreed, because it was true and he couldn’t deny that, but he also didn’t feel bad about it.

“Fitz, I’m trying to look out for you here and you’re doing everything you can to make that impossible.”

“I’ve never asked you to look out for me.”

“Except that you keep making these mistakes. Daisy, Grant,” she listed, “all the people from bars and clubs, all the friends with benefits you pretend you don’t care when they leave you for someone else.”

“Daisy and Grant are nothing alike.”

“Maybe not on the surface, but they’re both detrimental to you.”

“It’s not the same,” he argued. “Daisy is not Grant. She’s not mean, or angry, or hurtful. She’s sweet, and soft, and kind. She cares about what I like, and what I’m passionate about, and asks questions about my work. She’s smart, and wants to do good in the world, and when we’re together, I don’t think about how dark the world can be, how dark  _ I  _ can be. She makes me happy and I don’t want to walk away from that just to keep my job.”

Bobbi, the pragmatist at heart, rolled her eyes at that.

“So when you lose your job over this, where are you going to live? You’re not staying with me and Jemma, I’ll tell you that for sure. How are you going to pay your bills?”

“I’m not going to lose my job, Bobbi.”

“What’s the plan, Fitz? Lose your job, live out of your car, get married by the river, have little babies you put to sleep in dresser drawers you scavenged from the apartments near the college at the end of the semester?”

“ _ Barbara _ , I’m an adult if you forgot. I know how to balance work and life. I can decide what is worth the risk or not, and if I lose my job,  _ if  _ that happens, I can bounce back and find another job. I love teaching, yes, but my life doesn’t start and end on campus. I appreciate you being worried about me, but I am a big boy, I’ve been looking after myself long before I had you, since I was a kid. I don’t need your protection on this one.”

“An adult wouldn’t choose a girl over a steady, secure job.”

“Would you leave the university to keep Jemma?”

“That’s not the same.”

“Why not?”

“Because I’ve known Jemma for years, and you’ve known this girl for a couple of weeks.”

“If you’d leave your steady, secure job at the university for Jemma, then it is absolutely no different than me and Daisy. You’re just trying to control me and my life the same way you did to Hunter, and I’m sick of it. You drove him away, and you’re driving me away just the same, because you don’t know when to stop. But I can take care of myself.”

Bobbi growled and stalked away. She slammed the sliding glass door behind her dramatically and he took a deep breath to steady himself. He’d be hearing about this later from Jemma, or from Hunter, about how he’d fucked up. He hadn’t really fought with Bobbi before, not like this.

He followed, catching Glitch as she tried to slip out of the open back door. He could see Jemma at the front door, glancing between him, Daisy, and outside to Bobbi.

“You can go after her,” he said, shutting the back door and carrying Glitch over to Daisy. Glitch always turned into a liquid sack when carried, content to stay in his arms. “Yell at me later.”

“I won’t yell at you,” Jemma said. “I’m actually on your side here.”

“Jem?”

“You haven’t been this happy in years, and I can’t ask you to let that go, and neither should Bobbi.”

There was a car door slam, and Jemma sighed.

“So dramatic. I should go but it was nice meeting you, Daisy. Text me later?”

“Of course,” Daisy said, reaching out to Glitch. She bumped her head up against Daisy’s offered hand eagerly. “Thank you, Jemma.”

Jemma winked at her, and then she was gone, closing the door behind her. He looked at Daisy, trying to convey his apologies just with his eyes as much as possible.

“Your friends are nice,” Daisy said, laughing.

“I’m so sorry,” he said.

“Don’t be,” she said, scratching Glitch behind her ears. Glitch didn’t usually purr as much as she let out pleased, broken squeaks. Her meow was a broken party horn. “Gosh, you’re cute.”

“She is.”

“So are you,” Daisy said, leaning into kiss his cheek. “You shouldn’t lose your job for me, though. I don’t want to live by the river in your car with babies in dresser drawers.”

“Heard that, huh.”

“Yeah, those doors are glass, and you both were loud.”

“Sorry.”

She brought him in for a kiss, soft and sweet.

“You love me,” she teased fondly, “enough to take on the hottest, and scariest woman I’ve ever met.”

He laughed, resting his forehead against hers.

“I do.”

She smiled.”

“Never had someone love me like that before. I could get used to it.”

“You should,” he said, trailing kisses along her cheekbone to her ear and down the long line of her neck.

“You know what that means, though?” He hummed his response into her skin. “You’re going to have to meet my parents as my boyfriend.”

He pulled away and narrowed his eyes at her.

“You say that like I have already met them.”

“You have.”

When she didn’t elaborate, he poked her in the ribs to make her squirm.

“My parents are Phil Coulson and Melinda May.”

“Excuse me?” he asked. “What?”

“Sorry, I didn’t want to scare you off since my dad is the dean of  Triskelion College of Arts and Sciences. I like you too much for that.”

“You are going to get me fired,” he said, kissing her deeper. Glitch jumped from his arms with an indignant  party horn sound, and Daisy looked at her.

“Your  _ cat _ ,” she laughed, watching the way Glitch leapt up onto the back of the couch. She turned back to him with a smile. “We’ll just explain how we met, how much I like you, how quiet and non-threatening you are. It’ll be okay.”

“Okay,” Fitz said. “Okay. That’s terrifying, but for you? Yeah.”

“Yeah?”

“I’m going to stick around, and if you want me to meet your parents, I will absolutely meet your parents.”

“As my boyfriend?” she asked, teasing dancing fingers down his chest and sides.

“As your boyfriend.”

* * *

Melinda May was terrifying. She didn’t blink the entire time Fitz was in her sight. She insisted he only refer to her as May, nothing else. She watched Fitz carefully, quiet, assessing, watching. At one point, during dinner, Fitz leaned over to Daisy when May was out of ear shot and asked, “is she going to bury me in the backyard before the end of dinner?”

“No,” Daisy laughed. “Not the backyard, at least.”

“Helpful.”

Phil Coulson was friendly, but made it clear he wasn’t super pleased either to have Fitz in Daisy’s life. His questions were direct, and unapologetic, even if his tone was light. That was more unpleasant than May’s outright stare and on-going wariness. He would never say that to Daisy, or to Coulson, because he was polite and he didn’t want to get on anyone’s bad side. He was already skirting a line here.

“How old are you again, Fitz?”

“I’m twenty-seven,” Fitz answered.

“You’re a professor, though, correct? With a doctorate, if I remember.”

“I am. I’ve always been a little advanced. I got my doctorate by the time I was twenty.”

“Oh!” Coulson said. “Did you really?”

“I did. I’ve been teaching at the university for seven years, but I’ve been a part of the university since I was a teenager.”

“And you’re content there? Teaching?”

“Yes,” Fitz replied, “I am. The university is a great place for intelligent minds to meet and collaborate. The research opportunities are amazing, and I do love my students, even the needy ones and the outwardly antagonistic ones. Maybe someday I’ll change my mind and open a tech company, but for now, I am plenty content here at the university.”

Coulson nodded, considering that.

“And your specialty is engineering?”

“Yes, sir, mechanical engineering,” Fitz replied. 

“So, you wouldn’t be in charge of anything Daisy is learning,” Coulson said.

“No, sir. We’re not in the same department.”

“Good.”

Coulson turned to May who had a silent conversation with their eyes, and then turned back to their meal.

“Okay.”

* * *

So, they let him continue dating their daughter, and they didn’t have him fired. 

On the way out of the May-Coulson house that night, Daisy caught him at his car. She was staying the night at her parents’ house, but had offered to walk him out.

“See? No stress.”

“No stress is a funny way to put that considering I was incredibly stressed the entire time. I’m not convinced your mum isn’t hiding in the back of my car waiting to strike.”

“Fitz,” Daisy said, sliding her hands along his waist. “They’re not going to kill you. I’m an adult, and they established there’s no weird power dynamic here. You’re not extorting me for sex, and I’m not using you for a good grade. If anything, I have the power in this relationship.”

“That’s certainly true.”

She smiled, and everything inside of his loosened, all the stress he’d been carrying, the tension, all of it gave way because Daisy Johnson was happy. 

“Hey Fitz?” she said.

“Hey Daisy,” he mimicked.

“I love you.”

“What?”

She leaned into him, pressing him into the side of his car, and in the soft overhead street lamp, looked like an angel as she said, “I love you.”

“Are you sure?”

She laughed, and held his face in her hands.

“Of course, I’m sure. I have not met any man who will willingly walk into my parents’ house, risking their job and their future, and their life, and does so just because I asked. I’m sure.”

* * *

_ Fitz created the group _

_ Fitz added 4 members _

_ Fitz changed the group name _

** Convenient Group Chat **

Fitz: Making a coffee run, anyone want some?

Daisy: The usual please

Daisy: I’m the pretty one in the quad under the big sign that say KILL ME BEFORE I HAVE TO TURN IN MY NEXT DRAFT OF MY THESIS

Jemma: I’ll take an iced London Fog if you’re coming my way on the run

Hunter: I’d like a shot of whiskey, and a blow to the face

Fitz: I mean....

Fitz: I’ll gladly punch you in the face, mate

Fitz: But I was thinking like, an iced macchiato with almond milk and mocha?

Hunter: That’ll do instead

Bobbi: Nothing for me

** Don’t Tell Bobbi This Exists **

Fitz: How do I make Bobbi not hate me?

Hunter: Haven’t figured that out myself yet mate

Jemma: I’d say apologize but I don’t know if that’ll work

Hunter: Hasn’t for me yet

Fitz: I am sorry, but not for what she wants me to be sorry for

Fitz: I’m not going to apologize for loving Daisy 

Jemma: No, that’s understandable

Jemma: Maybe try explaining?

Fitz: Can we talk?

Fitz: I miss you

Fitz: A lot

Bobbi: What do you want to talk about?

Fitz: Come on the coffee run with me? This will be easier in person

Bobbi: Sure

Bobbi didn’t look any different when they met up in the professors’ lot at Fitz’s car. It hadn’t been that long, so it didn’t make any sense as to why she would, but it felt like forever for Fitz. He hadn’t ever gone this long without talking to her, without hanging out or meeting up with her. He normally saw her once a day at least, but since their disagreement, he hadn’t seen her once. She went to lunch without him, normally grabbing one of the others and leaving the other for Fitz, like alternating weekends with your separated parents. 

“Hey,” he said. 

“Hello,” she replied. He unlocked his doors and climbed inside first, grabbing the bag that Daisy had left on his passenger seat and setting it in the back before Bobbi sat on it. “You wanted to talk?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t know where to start. “I thought it might be easier, but I think I was wrong.”

“Are you still dating her?”

“I am.” Bobbi chuckled drily but he continued. “I actually met her parents last week. You might know them. Phil Coulson and Melinda May.”

Bobbi looked at him while he started to drive out of the lot, following the traffic off campus. There was plenty of coffee stops on campus, but the good stuff came from a shop in town. 

“You’re shitting me.”

“I am not.”

“You’re dating Phil Coulson’s  _ daughter _ , and you’re alive? And employed?”

“He didn’t have a problem with it once I explained that Daisy and I are only a year apart in age, and there’s no weird power play here since we’re not in the same department. I’m pretty sure I’d be dead right now if they minded. They both looked like they were armed to kill me.”

“I’d certainly kill you if she were my daughter.”

Fitz rolled his eyes.

“You make it sound like I’m some predator going after her. That’s not how it happened.”

“Oh, no?”

“No. It was by chance that we kept meeting, and she gave me her number first.”

“You kissed her first.”

“After she flirted with me all night.”

“After you intentionally stayed in the bar with her while Mack and Hunter left.”

“No, no, Mack told me to stay put until he came back. He never did. That’s not my fault.”

Bobbi sighed.

“I was just trying to look out for you. You’re my family, Leo.” She never called him Leo, no one really did, but especially not her. She’d call him Leopold to tease him, and he’d call her Barbara in return, but it was always Fitz and Bobbi. “I don’t want you to get hurt unless you are absolutely sure.”

“I am absolutely sure. I love her, Bobbi, and she loves me, and I want to spend as much of my life with her as she will let me.”

“That’s an awful big commitment this fast.”

“I know. But I’m willing to take the risk. She’s worth that risk. She is, she’s my Jemma Simmons.”

Bobbi took this in stride, nodding.

“You’re sure of this, then?”

“Yes,” he said and he did not continue, didn’t feel the need to explain or reason. He felt it deep in his chest. 

“Okay. I want to meet her for real, then.”

They got their coffees, and headed back to campus with everyone’s order. They stopped by the gym for Hunter’s first, then by the research lab on the edge of campus for Jemma’s, and last, Fitz led Bobbi into the quad. He knew exactly where he’d find Daisy. She’d sent him a selfie of her outside of the library, the large bird statue behind her. 

“Hey,” she said, looking up and shielding her eyes as they approached. “Please let that be my coffee delivery.”

“It is, in fact,” Fitz said, sinking down next to her and leaning in for a kiss. She gave him one, but was reaching more for the extra cup in his hand and missed his mouth. “Wow, I see how it is. You love coffee more than me, huh?”

“In this moment? Yes. Hand it over.”

He laughed and passed her the cup. 

“This is Bobbi Morse, who you have met before, but would like to reintroduce herself as a rational human being,” Fitz said. “Who might sit down like a normal person eventually.”

“Right,” Bobbi said, sitting down on the blanket Daisy had spread out over the grass, her workbooks and laptop off to one side. She was quiet for a moment, and Fitz almost thought she wasn’t going to say anything. “I don’t quite know how to do this. I’ve never – I guess the best way is all at once. I’m sorry for the way I acted the other morning. I’ve always been concerned for Fitz’s safety and well-being since we met, but that’s kind of blindsided me to the fact that he’s not a kid anymore and can handle his own life. So, that being said, I am sorry, and I hope we can start fresh.”

Daisy considered it for a moment, then stuck out her hand.

“Hi, I’m Daisy, Fitz’s girlfriend.”

“Bobbi Morse, best friend.”

“It’s nice to meet you.”

“It’s very nice to meet you, too.”

**Author's Note:**

> I decided to cover three(ish) days of AU August with this one - No SHIELD, a Free Day (chose college au), and Bartender! Come find me on tumblr at [kaytikazoo](kaytikazoo.tumblr.com)
> 
> -k


End file.
